


Large Caramel Latte

by cameroncole



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, brief mention of past Jasper/Octavia, coffee shop AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-11 23:16:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7911379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cameroncole/pseuds/cameroncole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harper loves her job at the coffee shop, it's a fun job with great co-workers and good customers. However, it's never helped her meet girls before. That is, until Monroe comes in on Monty's recommendation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Large Caramel Latte

The usual overpowering scent of coffee and the loud chatter of patrons greeted Harper as she stepped into work on a windy Tuesday afternoon. Wells and Jasper looked like they had their hands full behind the counter so she zipped through the crowd to the back room to change and throw her hair into a ponytail before joining Wells at the registers. Late afternoons were the cafe’s busiest times yet the owner, Wells’s father, refused to have more than three people working at any one time so it didn’t take long for  
Jasper to get swamped with orders. Once the crowd had switched from mostly waiting to order to mostly waiting for their drinks so did Harper, closing her till and helping Jasper fill the orders as quickly as possible. This was the usual routine, Jasper making drinks, Wells taking orders, and Harper filling in wherever she was needed until the crowd died down around 9pm and Jasper left. 

It was 10 o’clock and Harper was considering telling Wells to go home. They closed in an hour and hadn’t had any new customers for more than that, not to mention that he had been there three hours longer than her. She knew he wouldn’t be fond of the idea, he hated leaving anyone working alone—not that he would complain if _he_ was the one left behind—but she wasn’t going to force him to stand there with her for another hour when he had to be dead tired. 

Picking up a damp cloth she started to wipe the counters around the machines in hopes that looking like she was cleaning up would encourage Wells to listen to her. "You should head home." Harper began, her voice soft and quiet but filled with determination to make him listen to her. "There’s not much left to do here, and i prefer cleaning up alone." 

She held her breath as she waited for a response, she’d been working with Wells long enough to know she hit already the right spots. Making it about her not him so he wouldn’t feel like a "charity case" as he’d once said, check. Asserting there wasn’t much work to do, check. Making a suggestion as opposed to outright telling him to go home, therefore making it seem like he had a choice, check. All that was left for her to do was wait for him to come to his senses. 

"If you’re sure you got this." He started but as Harper turned around with a bright smile on her face he let out a small sigh and turned to head to the back room, untying his apron as he went. 

She went back to cleaning the counter, focusing hard on a spot Jasper had made with caramel drizzle that he’d been too busy to clean up with a triumphant smile on her face. 

"Wipe that smirk off your lips." Wells said, as he came out of the back room back in his regular clothes. "This may be a small victory but you have yet to win the war." 

She let out a laugh, her smile growing to something warmer. "See you tomorrow, Wells." 

He smiled back and was gone into the dark night walking towards the car he kept parked a block away. 

Returning to her cleaning, Harper seriously didn’t expect another customer that night and while she was happy about that fact, she couldn’t say she was particularly unhappy when the bells above the door jingled and she looked up to see one of the cutest girls she’d ever seen walking through the door. 

She couldn’t have been more than 2 inches shorter than Harper herself. Her hair was done up in an elaborate tri-braid style that fell against the back of the dark blue bomber jacket she was huddled into to protect herself from the cold. She looked up, and they locked eyes, Harper with a beaming smile on her face that was infinitely too cheery for a coffee shop worker 20 minutes before close but she didn’t care. 

She buzzed over to the register, the smile still on her face. "What can I get you?" 

The girl didn’t seem phased by her overexcited actions, instead offering up a smaller, somehow more quiet smile that Harper immediately decided suited her more than any wide, bright smile ever could. "Could I get a large caramel latte?" 

Toning down her smile a bit, Harper punched that into the register barely looking away from the girl to do so. "That’ll be $3.74." 

Reaching into her pocket Monroe pulled out four crumpled ones and handed them over without a word. She took her receipt and change without a sound as well, seeming lost in thought. 

"You know," Harper said, trying to fill the silence that had fallen. "I don’t think I’ve seen you before, and i work here six days a weeks so I’m sure I would." 

"This is my first time coming here." Monroe replied, reaching up to scratch the back of her neck. "A friend of mine knows someone that works here and he suggested it a while ago but i just couldn’t find the time until now." 

"Well, you picked a good time to come, I’m the best looking out of all the employees here." It was meant as a joke, Harper even turned to wink at other girl but didn’t get to before she was speaking. 

"You certainly set the bar high." 

Feeling her cheeks heat, Harper turned back to the drink she was making. _Keep your cool, McIntyre, you’ve flirted with cute girls before_. she thought, trying to keep herself calm. Finally satisfied with the foam art, she popped the lid on and reached for her sharpie. "I just realized I didn’t get your name." 

"My name?" Monroe questioned, drawing her brows together in confusion, which mostly just resulted in Harper’s desire to kiss her going up ten-fold. "Oh, to put on the cup." She laughed before continuing. "It’s Monroe, spelled like Marilyn Monroe." 

Harper jotted that down, then before really thinking about, she twisted the cup and wrote her name and number on it and slid the sleeve on. Her, "Here you go." sounded a little strained to her own ears, but she wasn’t sure if that was from using it all day or nerves from giving a girl her number. "Enjoy!" 

Monroe smiled again, taking the cup from Harper’s outstretched hand. "I will, thank you." She replied before turning and leaving. 

* * * * * 

It took Monroe three days to contact Harper, three days of hoping she would come in and checking her phone almost to the point of obsession before Monroe came in again. This time, she had someone with her, a fairly regular customer that also happened to be Jasper's best friend. 

Before Harper could even say anything, Jasper's voice sounded from behind the counter, an explosion of excitement that really was unwarranted considering they lived together. "Monty! And you finally brought Monroe!" 

Monty's face lit up in a grin, but it was Monroe that spoke. "I was here a few days ago, but you weren't." 

Ignoring the rest of the conversation, Harper glanced at her watch, noting that her break ended in two minutes, and pushed herself away from the small table she'd commandeered. She forced herself to avoid looking at the other girl, embarrassment almost causing her to blush. Monroe had made it clear she wasn't interested and Harper wasn't one to force herself on others. 

Tightening the ties to her apron, she joined Jasper at the machines, despite there being no orders to fill. Jasper was already busy making Monty's usual, some super complicated soy latte that only made sense to coffee people, so when the rest of the order flashed on the screen she set to work on the same thing Monroe last time she was here. 

_At least she liked the coffee_. Was a bitter thought running through Harper's head as she finished up the art on top and snapped the lid in place. Her name was already on it, scrawled in a practically straight line in Wells' loopy handwriting, so Harper just grabbed a sleeve and turned to put it on the counter. She offered up the smallest polite smile she had ever given a customer, hoping to make it clear that she had gotten the message but Monroe looked confused. She didn't say anything, just held that same confused look as she took the coffee and left with Monty. 

It was Jasper's late night, the only night where he stayed until closed instead of Wells, and as soon as Wells had said his final goodbyes he pounced on her. "Monroe was in here on Tuesday, right?" 

Harper nodded, continuing in her task of tidying up the food display. 

"She came over on Wednesday, talking about some cute girl she'd met in a coffee shop. I didn't even stop to think it was this one. She was talking about you, right?" 

"I can't exactly read people's minds, Jasper, but I'm going to say no since I gave her my number and she never called." She hoped that would end the subject, as she moved a cheese croissant closer to the glass. 

"You gave her your number?" She snuck a glance at him, his eyes wide in a mix of surprise and excitement before he continued. "She didn't mention that." 

With a sigh she put the tongs back in the container under the counter and turned to face Jasper properly. "I wrote it on her cup along with my name." 

Jasper let out a bark of a laugh and Harper felt embarrassment color her cheeks. "Monroe's pretty famous for being as unobservant as humanly possible. She probably just didn't notice." 

" _Or_ ," Harper said. "She did notice and she's just not interested. It's happened before, believe it or not."  
Jasper shook his head, a wide smile on his face. "You obviously didn't see how hurt she looked when you didn't say anything to her. Trust me she's into you." 

Harper resisted the urge to roll her eyes, this felt incredibly too much like the time he'd tried to set her up with Octavia, an experience that hadn't exactly ended well. She considered pointing it out to him, or even asking if Monroe was his ex too but she thought better of it and turned to behind wiping down the counter beside the till. 

"Look, Harper, I'm being serious here, okay? She's totally into you and I'm gonna prove it." Jasper seemed determined, which frightened Harper a little since she didn't think Jasper could be determined about anything. 

Once again she didn't say anything, choosing instead to focus on the task at hand. The silence stretched out, neither of them talking to each other for anything other than work purposes until 10:30 when Harper quietly suggested he head home and he even more quietly agreed. 

She was flipping the chairs to place them seat down on the table when the bells jingled next, the clock on the wall directly in front of her told her it was 10:57 and she felt a rush of annoyance. Rounding the corner into the main part of the cafe she saw the person that had entered and felt the annoyance melt away. 

Monroe stood just inside the door, her arms crossed over her chest and her face a mask of nervousness and something akin to courage. 

Harper tried to think of something to say but everything she thought of sounded lame and ridiculous to her own ears. Luckily Monroe did not have the same problem and her voice filled the room fairly quickly. 

"Jasper told me you put your number on the cup you gave me. He also said that he told you that I probably just didn't notice and you seemed convinced that I wasn't interested, so I came here to tell you that if I had have seen it I probably would have called you that night." She finished with a small smile. 

Harper floundered for a moment, her emotions a swirl of excitement, confusion and the slightest inkling of gratitude towards Jasper, not that she would ever tell him. "If you want, I could write my number on like a napkin or something? As long as you don't use it to wipe your face and then throw it out." 

Monroe let out a little laughed before returning to her small smile. "I'd like that a lot."


End file.
